Low numbers of intestinal Shiga toxin-producing E. coli correlate with a poor prognosis in sheep infected with bovine leukemia virus

Healthy ruminants carry intestinal Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli (STEC). Stx has antiviral activities in vitro and STEC numbers correlate with reduced early viremia in sheep experimentally infected with bovine leukemia virus (BLV). This study assessed the impact of intestinal STEC on BLV-induced disease for one year post-BLV-challenge. High STEC scores (CFU/g feces x frequency of STEC-positive samples) correlated with good health, whereas poor weight gain, distress, and tumor development occurred only among animals with low STEC scores. STEC carriage was associated with increased percentages of B cells in peripheral blood.

Experimental transmission of bovine leukosis virus by leucocytes recovered from the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans L

1. Wild stable flies (stomoxys calcitrans) feeding on heifers infected with bovine leukosis virus (BLV) carried viable bovine leucocytes in the midgut and proboscis that, when inoculated by the subcutaneous route into lambs aged 5 to 60 days, elicited the development of antibodies to glycoprotein (gp51) and polipeptide 25 (p25). 2. Antibodies were detected as early as one month later and persisted for an experimental period of 24 or 36 months. Uninoculated control lambs reared to gether with the experimental animals did not acquire the infection, indicating the lack of horizontal transmission. 3. S. calcitrans reared in the laboratory were intermittently allowed to feed on the skin of BLV-infected heifers and on five lambs over a period of 3-10 months. Although some of these lambs were bitten about 500 times, none developed antibodies to BLV (gp51 or p25) over observation periods of 30 or 36 months